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Showing posts from January, 2026

Making 28mm olive trees (part 2)

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Following on from l ast week's post , I have now finished my attempt at 28mm olive trees. These are the four trunks I made earlier, undercoated dark green, over-brushed dark brown, dry bushed with a mix of dark brown and light grey. The foliage is Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage which is pretty great stuff. Having said that, it was a pain to glue on, and it remains to be seen how robust it will be with use. Bases were done with the same AK Interactive sand and tufts that I've used on other scenery and model bases to give a sense of uniformity. I also took a couple of branches of the WS fine leaf foliage to make some olive saplings starting to emerge from two of my ruined building bases. This is now the extent of the scatter terrain being made specifically for this project. I've two more buildings and some rocky outcrops ready to undercoat and then I'll start looking for a 2' long section of city walls. When required for the specific scenario, my lad has a wooden ...

Wolves in Sheeps' Clothing

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I ran a fun introductory game of the Wolves in Sheeps' Clothing scenario for Devilry Afoot this week for Andrew and Roger up at Clare Gaming. The werewolves emerged as far from the hunters as possible, and savaged two of the innocents before the others scattered.    One of the werewolves was killed, while the other survived, if barely. Of the four hunters, two were taken out of action. Both survived, one bearing a lasting leg wound, and both now have the wolf-bitten secret. The other two hunters both fled the scene unwounded. Great craic!

Making 28mm olive trees (part 1)

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I need olive trees for my Bronze Age Aegean board - and indeed for all Mediterranean gaming. Olives are ubiquitous in the area now, and were in the past. However, the commercial options for wargamers are very limited, very expensive, and don't look overly like olive trees. What I'm looking for is something that has been grown and tended for generations. A gnarly, twisted, thick trunk, kept low to make harvesting the olives easier, with low hanging branches. So over the weekend I set out to make a proof of concept. The above picture is an olive grove around the Mycenaean tholos tomb at Amphissa, but any would do for inspiration. Starting with semi-flexible wire left over from a long forgotten project of my lad's, I twisted some rough shapes to use as armatures. Over these, I (further) twisted green stuff, making sure to have nice thick trunks and much thinner branches. Using an old knife and a plastic rod about 5mm in diameter, I smooshed and prodded until I had something th...

Helenos, prince of Troy

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First post of 2026, and my first painted miniatures of the second quarter of the 21st century! Here we continue with the project to build 28mm heroes and contingents for the Trojan War with Helenos, the prince of Troy and favourite of Apollo. All miniatures are from the Eureka Miniatures Bronze Age Greeks range. These four warriors will forming the core of Helenos' promachoi. They have come to me third-hand, and it is great to be putting them to good use. The chap on the left had a broken plume which has been substituted for another, more robust one I just happened to have lying around.  I went with a red and white theme this time - although I am aware that my 'red' is more terracotta. Simply put, I care not; I like it. The bow-armed promachoi have been ordered, along with a bunch of other bits and pieces for the project, from Eureka. Helenos himself is the Greek Priest model from the range and works well as a princeling calling on his patron deity or reading the flight of ...